The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

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“Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.” – Lord Acton

Americans have long been blessed. We’ve never been perfect but this cynical, politically correct age tends to harp more on our deficiencies than highlight the astounding prosperity that a generally free society brought. Today, some of our youth assume wealth their birthright while disparaging its capitalist wellspring.

America’s heritage was one of free markets with limited, constitutional government. Independence was born less from revolution than a defense of historic liberties based on innate, natural rights. The founding vision affirmed tradition by blending principle, experience and pragmatism.

The reality of America’s founding was not pristine, but imperfection is always and everywhere present because man is inherently flawed. Here, where markets and property were respected, people left free to pursue happiness prospered as none before through history.

As the United States slides from Earth’s freest people to the cusp of falling from the top ten, it’s worth revisiting what made this nation transcendent. For most of her past, America was a beacon of liberty and prosperity in a world of subjugation and squalor.

Our shores attracted “the tired and poor.” They arrived and they too prospered, helping lift America to our current lofty perch. We brought more freedom and more material progress to humanity than any other nation. Founded on the principle that political leaders are subservient to laws, America became exceptional.

Today, some younger Americans no longer esteem her so. Some even blame capitalism for the oppression and poverty of lands which were oppressed and impoverished millennia before America even began. Polls of twenty-somethings reveal socialism viewed on par with capitalism. They no longer perceive America as fundamentally good.

As we lose our moorings maybe we are no longer fundamentally good.

Much of this trend results from a popular culture and school system slanted heavily to the Left. Abe Lincoln warned, “The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.” As we saw with the now fizzled Occupy Wall Street, the spoiled children of capitalist bounty disdain the very source of their affluence.

Definitions of Right and Left often shift through time and space. The historic connotation of liberal was laissez faire leanings. Now, Western liberals share far more commonality with socialists. Conservatives, in the historical sense, were those seeking to retain aristocratic rule.